French prefer Facebook, YouTube

PARIS: French consumers tend to overwhelmingly favour certain websites in particular categories new research has shown, with the greatest competition coming in news and home products.

Harris Interactive analysed responses from a representative sample of more than 30,000 people aged over 15 to compile lists of the top ten websites in nine categories, from automotive to video games.

Facebook dominated social networks, with two thirds of respondents (66.9%) choosing it as their favourite. YouTube was a long way back on 10.1% while Twitter had less than half that, at 4.3%.

In the classifieds and private sales category, Leboncoin.fr was way out in front with a 72.9% share. Then came eBay on 6.6% and Amazon on 3.8%.

A similar pattern was evident in online video, where YouTube was by far the preferred site, being chosen by 69.2% of respondents. Allocine.fr gained a 3.3% share, as did dailymotion.com. Harris noted that Allocine had gained this share in six months, having only launched in June 2013.

Le Monde led the news category but with only a 10.5% share. 20minutes.fr was close behind on 8.6% while Google Actualités was in third with a 7.4% share.

The leading sites in home products were also tightly bunched, with Leroymerlin.fr in first place (14.6%), followed by Ikea.com (12.7%) and then Castorama.fr (6.5%).

The remaining four categories all had a clear leader but by a less emphatic margin then the first three detailed.

Thus, Lequipe.fr was the favourite sports site, gaining a 27.5% share of respondents' first choices, with Eurosport.fr taking second on 10.8% and Orange Sport third on 3.7%.

Doctissimo.fr was the leading family site on 25.4%, well ahead of second-placed Aufeminin.com (9.6%) and third-placed Parents.fr (5.2%).

Leboncoin.fr also took the top spot in the automobile category where its 13.1% share put it comfortably ahead of Turbo.fr (7.8%), a site more geared to editorial than sales. Renault.fr was the only manufacturer's site to make the top ten, with a 1.6% share.

The gap between first place and the rest widened again in the final category of video games. Heading the list was Jeuxvideo.com on 40.4%, with its near namesake Jeuxvideo.fr taking second place with a 7.8% share, while Gamekult.com in third had a 4.3% share.

Two manufacturers' sites were in the top ten, as Xbox and Playstation took 2.1% and 1.7% shares respectively.